Hand drawn or painted FDC (first day covers) have been done since the 1940s. Over the past few years I have begun combining my collection of comic character hand drawn sketches with FDCs. This blog is being maintained for the purpose of sharing my collection...

Friday, June 24, 2016

I purchased 2 sketches from Schigiel at the ECCC, which is not something I usually do. My first sketch from Schigiel was Pix, the obvious choice since it was his own character. I was at the comic con with my sone Matt, who was looking over Schigiel's work on the SpongeBob Comics. Both of my boys had grown up watching the SpongeBob TV show, and we still watch it. After walking around the show for a while we went back to Schigiel's booth.

I had been saving my Wonders of the Sea first day cover for an Aquaman drawing... I knew I had to have a sketch of Mermaid Man.

SpongeBob SquarePants premiered in 1999 on Nickelodeon, and has shown close to 200 episodes. The character of Mermaid Man and his sidekick Barnacle Boy (voiced by Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway) made their first appearance in episode 6 (August 1999) as two retired superheroes. The character was created and designed by Stephen Hillenburg, creator of the series...

Borgnine and Conway had performed together on the TV series McHale's Navy from 1962 to 1966. Hearing these voices come from these SpongeBob characters brought a little more excitement to an already good show. While my boys watched and enjoyed the show, I had recognized these voices from my childhood and was easily drawn in...

Matt had appreciated that Schigiel included the Mermaid Man catch phrase to enhance the sketch... EEEEVVILL!

The Wonders of the Sea postage stamp was designed by Charles Lynn Bragg, issued October 3, 1994 Honolulu, Hi

Friday, June 17, 2016

Doug Bratton's bio starts off - After a brief and unsuccessful career as a nude model....Doug is the creator of the daily panel comic Pop Culture Shock Therapy, which have been collected into two books The Deranged Stalkers and Comic Re-Mix..

I asked Bratton to draw a Frankenberry (he was on the cover of his Re-Mix book, with Charlie Brown, Homer Simpson and Wonder Woman in a blender). Although I was a Count Chocula fan, I always enjoyed the monster cereal commercials...

Friday, June 10, 2016

Tim Vigil is best known for his work in the horror/adult genre. His graphic novel Faust, co-created with David Quinn, was first published in 1987 through Rebel Studios and then by Avatar Press. Faust, is a series that features strong violence and sexual situations, was developed into a film in 2001 by director Brian Yuzna as Faust: Love of the Damned..

The followup series Faust: Book of M was nominated for the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Best Illustrated Narrative...

I was a little hesitant to obtain a sketch from Vigil, due to the graphic and sexual nature of most of his work (it's not that I don't appreciate the art, but I have to bring this home and my wife might not approve!) I did approach Vigil with my request based on his background in horror. His sketch for the above Mummy first day cover is exceptional. The detail he provided , especially in the left hand reaching out of the drawing, it's beautiful...

Friday, June 3, 2016

Hard to believe that in all my requests for astronauts and Mars Attacks sketches, I had never requested one of my favorite cartoon characters, Marvin the Martian.
While I was looking over Criss' art work I was very inspired, but a majority of his work was fantasy and monsters. He had a great Frankenstein drawing, but I did not have anymore Franksnestein covers to use..

Criss mentioned he did some work on a new toy line that had monster-astronaut characters, called Hell Screamers, you can see his work on Hell Screamers on his Facebook page... Criss has provided the pencils for the Kickstarter project New Cairo, written and created by Bradley Golden and Alex Barranco... Criss also provided sketch covers for the Kickstarter project Until We Sleep...

I left the Project Mercury first day cover and ask Criss to do whatever he felt like...and Marvin the Martian was his choice..

Marvin first appeared in the 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon "Haredevil Hare", and was created by Chuck Jones. He mission is to destroy the earth with the aid of his trusty companion K-9, his army of instant martians and the Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator...

About Me

I have been a collector as far back as I can remember. Stamps, covers, autographs, baseball cards, comic books, coins, political buttons, sports memorabilia, space stamps and covers, and the list goes on.
This blog was set up to be able to share a small part of my collection with anyone who shares the interest.